ILM: maximizing the real value of data.

Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) has become the latest acronym in the Storage industry. Storage vendors are adapting the term at rapid rates, as they attempt to describe all-encompassing technologies that meet the new regulatory rules and incorporate disaster recovery solutions. However, despite the industry adoption of the terminology, it is increasingly important to remember that ILM is a description of both corporate processes and storage technologies, and that technology alone is not the solution.

Champions of ILM note the importance of determining how data moves through a system and how it is managed from creation to long-term storage. Critical data is given top priority storage resources and is always available while, over time, the data is migrated to more cost-efficient locations within the system. Data must be received, classified and stored according to the specific determinants within an organization.

ILM should be looked at as a way to maximize the value of information at the lowest cost at every point of the lifecycle. By combining the processes and storage technologies, end users can manage data from the moment it is created to when it is no longer necessary. ILM spans all types of platforms and aligns storage resources with the value of that data to the business at any point in time.

Implementing an ILM strategy involves identifying the right software, hardware and process at each stage of the information's lifecycle. This means shifting data between storage mediums in an effort to provide the ideal levels of access, protection, and recovery at the lowest possible total cost.

Classifying the Data

To better understand ILM, we need to start with the data itself and how it is classified within a specific organization. Storage administrators have several processes within ILM that they need to go through. First, they need to locate where the data is residing in their storage environment. Once this is determined, the IT department can generate reports from the storage resource management (SRM) tools and present the reports to the department heads. These reports explain the breakdown of the data storage and the costs involved.

Department heads then need to determine how this data is used and how critical it is to the business at a given point in time. IT must also work with department heads to set up a classification schema for the company. IT will use all of the data collected at this point to establish policies to automate the data's migration through the environment--with a minimum amount of hands-on data management.

Once data has been classified, and there is agreement where the data should reside, policies must be established to determine where (on which storage resources) the data should be located. To protect data that must remain readily available, backup processes such as mirroring and replication to remote arrays or offsite facilities should be incorporated.

Simplifying Disaster Recovery/Business Continuance 

Disaster recovery has been an important topic over the past two years, resulting in a number of assessments; however, there have been few implementations. It is often considered too costly to implement a full-blown disaster recovery/business continuance plan due to the quantity of data that IT believes needs to be replicated.

However, several of the assessments discussed here can help IT determine the real quantity of data that needs to be replicated for disaster recovery/business continuance. The costs associated with disaster recovery/business continuance can be greatly reduced with the proper classification of data.

Better Backups

The classification and automatic migration of data helps IT with the process of backing up data. Backup initially consisted of moving data to some form of media that could be transported and housed in a reasonable footprint and stored for long periods of time. (Ten years is now considered archiving).

Today, backup has evolved into migrating data to some form of storage medium for quick recovery. In the past, backup to tape was the only option for offloading aged data from primary resources. Now, with Application Data Management (ADM) and disk-to-disk backup solutions, long-term retention of data does not necessarily have to be on tape. Again, by assessing and classifying data, IT better understands what data needs to be on tape at given points in time, and what should be retained on secondary storage resources.

Storage Resource Management (SRM) solutions can eliminate issues with backing up redundant and unnecessary files. It can also open up the backup window and greatly reduce the server and storage resources required.

The act of archiving data is evolving as well. Today, IT must determine how to avoid redundancy. Nobody wants to have 4,000 copies of the same file backed up to tape, wasting valuable space. How can IT locate a necessary file without scouring through all the archive files, especially when it knows the file was active 60 days ago? SRM and ADM tools can ensure that IT is properly archiving the right data at the appropriate time, avoiding redundancy.

Archiving, by definition, is important in the compliance world. Regulatory requirements will determine the amount of time data is archived, as well as the requirements surrounding archiving. These include how long the data needs to be kept, how quickly the data needs to be recovered and how it must be destroyed. Regulatory requirements will also determine the medium on which data is stored, such as WORM-like media (Write Once Read Many).

Solving the Problem

ILM solves key problems such as ineffective storage utilization, the costs of managing storage and the ability to manage storage growth surrounding data replication, disaster recovery/business continuance and backup.

IT must understand that unless the real value of data is determined within the environment, it remains difficult to assign the best storage resources for its placement.

Once the data has been assigned a value, the storage resource should also be assigned a value. By properly placing the data in its proper value array, IT can more effectively distribute this data across multiple resources--leading to better utilization and cost savings. Automating the data management and migration process can ensure that resources are being optimized and can also reduce the number of staff and man-hours required to manage the storage.

By using SRM tools, IT no longer has to back up the same .mpg file that it has 245 copies of already. This process saves time (backup), disk space (secondary storage) and tape space. ADM solutions enable policy-driven data placement, ensuring that only the highest-value data uses primary resources. This reduces waste and allows IT to develop budgets based on the importance of the data to business requirements.

ILM needs to be a part of the overall IT strategy as it relates to disaster recovery/business continuance and regulatory requirements. The ability to track the location of data within the company will help IT successfully handle situations from audits to true disasters.

The Bottom Line

ILM is as significant a business process as Customer Resource Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). An effective ILM implementation can significantly streamline costs and management efficiencies. IT organizations can actually use ILM processes to more effectively implement CRM and ERP solutions, ensuring that critical data is given top-priority storage resources and is always available.

ILM is an ever-growing and evolving process. In order to realize the benefits of the ILM process, IT must continuously review the usage patterns of its storage resources and ensure adherence to policies and procedures. By taking advantage of the new SRM/ADM tools, monitoring the process becomes easy.

New advances in ATA and SATA disk will play an important role in helping IT administrators with ILM, giving them the ability to stage backups and snapshots inexpensively. Software innovations around SRM and ADM have also increased the ability to identify data, classify data and move data to the proper location over time.

Once IT can begin showing executive management exactly how their assets are being used, it will be in a position to properly assign chargebacks to the various groups in an effort to turn itself into a profit (or at least break-even) center. Now is the time to start planning ...

Jim O'Connor is director of product marketing at Bus-Tech (Burlington, MA)

www.bustech.com